Robert O'brien: An Insider's View on How Trump Actually Negotiates

About this episode

Robert C. O’Brien shares insights on negotiation lessons from his time in the Trump administration, discussing various foreign policy challenges and strategies.

Former Trump Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs and National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien discusses behind-the-scenes negotiation lessons from hostage cases and major foreign-policy deals. O’Brien describes his approach as implementing President Trump’s decisions, crediting that alignment for successes including the Abraham Accords. He gives a candid look at what operations inside the Trump administration looks like. Robert and Stan weigh the merits and perils of Trump's personal negotiating style and the effects it might have on the U.S standing in the world. 00:00 Trump Negotiation Style 00:26 Meet Robert OBrien 01:39 ASAP Rocky Case 03:30 Tough Talk With Sweden 05:27 From Hostages To NSA 07:27 Abraham Accords Breakthrough 10:59 Kushner And Internal Pushback 12:07 West Bank Red Line 14:25 Maximalism And Greenland 17:35 Unpredictability And Kissinger 19:48 Taiwan And China Strategy 21:55 Allies And Burden Sharing 24:38 Soleimani And Syria Deal 27:51 Erdogan And Long Term Ties 31:17 Negotiation Skills And Unity Host Stan Christensen has spent his career working as a professional negotiator in a variety of arenas. He has also taught a popular course on negotiation at Stanford…

People in this episode

Host: Stan Christensen

Guest: Robert C. O’Brien

Topics covered

• negotiation strategies
• foreign policy
• Trump administration
• hostage affairs
• international relations
• Abraham Accords
• personal negotiation style

Keywords

• negotiation
• Trump
• foreign policy
• hostage affairs
• Abraham Accords
• international relations
• Kushner
• China strategy
• Erdogan
• Syria deal

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Trump Administration, Abraham Accords

Places: Taiwan, China, Syria, Sweden, West Bank, Greenland, U.S

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